Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 5

The final day was a very different day in format as we started the day by doing evangelism, after our team time and devotional. I encouraged the team, from my limited experience on how easy evangelism is when we let God lead us. People went out in a group of at least 2 and I hovered between groups trying to encourage them. I started off with Virna and Mechita. Mechita is a born evangelist and she started talking about Jesus to the first man we met. I then prayed for him for his knees and he was instantly healed. He then accepted Christ as his Saviour there and then, as did his wife.
I then went on and found Eduardo and Ceci, and Eduardo and I spoke to some mototaxi drivers, who were greatly encouraged. Following this I stopped to buy a drink, and asked the lady how she was. She then told me how bad her life was and I ended up praying for her son.
I then returned to find Holly, Ronald and Naomi who were talking to a man who had a hernia. We prayed for him and his hernia disappeared in front of our eyes. He said he had this hernia for 40 years and was thanking God, as this was the third miracle of healing that he received in his life.
It is interesting how God seems to heal more easily when the people do not have the money for health care. However why does this stop us believing that God heals today?
Nearly all the teams came back with great stories and also testimonies for healings and conversions. The most important thing was that our team was encouraged, and we know plan to start to do this in La Victoria around our church. Bring it on.

We went to the Laguna Yarinacocha in the afternoon, and had fun hanging out as a team.

Lagoon Yarinacocha and Daniel and Joel enjoying the lagoon and the water.

We returned to the church and ate a traditional dinner of fried fish and bananas. This was after our mototaxi driver got a flat tyre and caused two other drivers to crash and giving Chloe her first experience of using her first aid training on one of the drivers, who had potentially broken his foot, but was certainly was suffering from severe shock. Chloe did an amazing job and we packed him off to the hospital with a friend who he phoned.
This made me think. Do we stop for the one, when we have plans, and things we need to do. Did Jesus stop for the one. The answer is yes. Therefore what should our response be. Stop for the one and change our plan or keep to the plan because it is important because it will affect other people. I don't have an obvious answer, but I do think about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I don't want to be the priest or the levi.

All the team except Daniel and Joel (who were sleeping)

After dinner we had a debrief and got the plane back without any problems, and with all our luggage. We arrived back in the house after 1 in the morning, very tired but very satisfied.
The week was very hard and very demanding for both Anna and I in different ways, but sacrifice for God always brings fruit, and we certainly saw a lot of fruit on the week, and I am not thinking of mangoes, bananas or even some of the more obscure jungle fruits!

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 3

Day 3 was probably the most striking day of our time in Pucallpa as we had to get up at half past four to get a boat at 6 in the morning to take us to a Shibipo settlement 3 or so hours down the river. The Burgess' on a boat on the Amazon.

Travelling in boat was another first for many of the team, and was an amazing experience. The Amazon!!!

We arrived however at about 11 o clock as we got grounded at one place, and we ended up leaving late of course. Watch out for the crocodiles and piranhas Andy!!

When we arrived we got greeted by a tribe of dancers who had been waiting for us, and took us by the arms and led us dancing and singing into the centre of the village, they were singing 'welcome to our village, you are welcome here'. I was very overwhelmed as I have seen this sort of thing many times on films, and documentaries, but never in real life.

The ladies welcoming us to the village.

The women dancing to welcome us to the village

We then had a 30 minute opening ceremony to welcome us to the village, and I spoke on spiritual fathers again, and we handed out gifts of clothes and food that we had brought.

The ladies waiting in line for their donations.

Joel was also entertaining the kids as he clapped and toddled around. Daniel and Joel really showed the gift of leadership that God has put in them.

Daniel and his new friends (human and terrapin)

Later on Daniel was entertaining another group of Shibipo kids when drawing water from the well, and Joel was washing himself, as well as leading about fifty of them in running games.

Not the quickest person to draw water from the well!!

It is wonderful to see how they were thriving in a culture so different from the one Anna and I have come from, and the one they are living in, and growing up in at the moment.
After my talk we broke into 2 groups Juan Carlos with the men and Virna with the women. Following the talk by Juan Carlos, brilliantly delivered 4 times over the four days, his team was praying with some of the men, and this gave me another of my highlights as Joanderlin (JanderLin) the youngest on the team (apart from our boys) was praying and counselling a man probably in his 60s or 70s. This was wonderful when you think that God has no interest in age, only in maturity, and Joanderlin was showing his.

Joanderlin ministering to a Shibipo man

Lili teaching the Sunday school teachers.

We had a second session of talks, followed by lunch, which many of the team struggled with, but for me was fine,I have eaten a lot worse in my time. (Frog porridge in Singapore for example) and we then made tracks back to the boat. The trip back was a lot quicker due to the current, and we got back in time to get showered, changed, and then went out for a night out, and to celebrate my birthday in La Rueda (the wheel) a typically jungle type restaurant. People ate cecina (wild jungle boar) tacacho (banana cooked with chicken, pork, egg, and other things inside), juani (rice in banana) friedfish (with eye, head and tail). We drank camu camu (a jungle fruit), cocona (another jungle fruit), and coca cola!! (Yes I know we went all that way and people still drink that horrible black liquid). Everyone had a good night and went to bed satisfied ready for day 4.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 2.

Day 2 was the hottest of the 6 days and people really struggled as we went to a Shibipo church that was supposedly 20 minutes away from our host church Luz Divina. After waiting for about an hour, we went in search of more than half the team who had been dropped off at a different church. The road had been changed about 2 weeks before so the mototaxi drivers were getting lost. This meant we started late, but as usual God was there and we had shared some excellent workshops with the Shibpo leaders and congreagation. It was quite amusing to see Virna speaking in Spanish and being translated to a different language.

Virna preaching on the power of your words to the Shibpo women

Daniel playing with 2 puppies

Following a meal of chicken and rice we did a kids club for the kids, which went well, especially when the kids got over their nerves of speaking Spanish (which they speak fluently, even though it is there second language) and really joined in, and got a lot out of the story of the lost sheep and how God loves us all. We finished by asking the kids to put on their name stickers on a heart we had cut out and we have donated that to the people there.

Juan Carlos sharing about the lost sheep with the Shibpo Kids.

We finished the teaching of that day as I shared my talk on spiritual parenting to the 50% of people that were still awake when I had finished (due to heat and exhaustion I’d like to say), and then had a meal of chicken and chips (a traditional Peruvian meal!), as we celebrated Joseph’s birthday.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 1.

Shibpo kids playing on a mototaxi

Well my 4^th visit to Pucallpa has been and gone. However this time I (Mark) didn’t go alone, or just with 1 or 3 other people. This time I went with 20 other adults as well as Daniel and Joel. This was the 1^st Vision Vida mission trip, and overall went really well. Yes there was the normal hiccups, and errors, but there was no major stomach upsets, no great falling outs or major incidents, and no one resigned to bed on day 3.
We went on Sunday 8^th November in the evening and arrived at about 21.30. We left on the Friday 13^th at 22.15, and arrived back in Lima very happy, but very tired.

Daniel decides how he is going to get to Pucallpa

I have led a few shorty term mission teams before, and I have been a member of 2 large short term mission teams, but I have never led a team of 21 before so this was a challenge, and it certainly turned out to be so, especially in the area of coordination and details, as neither of them are strengths of mine!

The team minus Daniel and Joel

Day 1 started well at the airport, although a few of the team arrived late, arriving in Peruvian timing and not English timing! We managed to get everyone on the plane and to Pucallpa safely, although Ronald one of the first time flyers had his bag sent to Tarapoto, another jungle town instead of Pucallpa. He did get it back 24 hours later.

The first thing many people noticed when we arrived was the heat, which was a running theme throughout our time there, and a classic quote was made by Lili, when she said, it’s not that hot, it’s just the heat from the engines of the plane. It wasn’t just the engines, it really was that hot!

Dolly affected by the heat.

Kidz Klub Christmas Event

As pastors of mission in our church we have been doing many things to try and encourage our church to look outside the four walls. We now have an amazing and growing team which help us to do this. The church is steadily growing in its understanding of what mission is. To help this continue we are doing our main outreach event this year and asking for the church members to be involved, on the day and also financially. Please watch, and enjoy how we are publicising the event. (It has been translated!!)

Prayer Walk

About 2 weeks ago I started what I hope will be the beginning of a new work in Pacifico de Villa (The community where we did the kids event before Christmas). It was a really great time as I was really humbled by the ladies who came with me on the prayer walk to 'prepare the ground' for what we hope will be a community changing event. The ladies praying
We prayed for the area of Pacifico de Villa, for the people, the businesses, the families, the children and many other things. In the next week or so we plan to go out and ask the people how we can serve them. More Views of Pacifico de Villa
As mentioned in the previous post we plan to be one of the churches that are doing ‘Servolution’ (see www.servolution.org/7days) which involves serving people with the love of Jesus, the week before Easter. We as leaders of the mission ministry in our church are trying to encourage and inspire the people in our church to be people who serve others as a normal everyday thing. We plan to start this with a big event, probably in Pacifico de Villa, as well as helping all the cell groups doing their own form of service.
We are considering cleaning the streets, providing food, doing some kids work, painting houses. Watch this space!!

Conferencia Corazon

Last week I had the privilege to go, as well as serve at the conference ‘Corazon atrevido, atreverte para servir’ or a heart that dares to serve. I am generally not a fan of conferences where I am just there to listen to teaching, but as normally happens God really blessed me, and I feel I have much to put into action from this conference.
I had the privilege to be looking after the pastors that came in from around Peru as well as abroad. I know have been invited to Cusco, Arequipa, Urubamba, and a place I’d never heard of in Ecuador. Watch this space. The most exciting is Urubamba as they have a conference every year, with many overseas speakers, and the pastors have a similar spirit to ourselves, and are friends with our senior pastors, Eduardo y Cecilia.

The conference was in the National Stadium
All the main sessions really blessed me and I know need to put these things into practice. I was also really touched by the extra visitors that were invited. The mayor of Lima thanked the church hosting the event ‘Camino de Vida’ or ‘Way of Life’. Also the Chancellor of the Exchequer was invited and thanked the church for the way they were involved in the earthquake of 2007, and how the work of helping continues.

Robert Barringer and The Peruvian Chancellor.
John Verrecken an American missionary in Mexico was one of the main speakers and translators and was an inspiration as he is man who preaches honestly and in a straight forward way, but only things that he has lived or is living. This is a way I try to live, and serve, and it is always an inspiration to hear someone who is ahead of me in their work, and show me how to advance.
Maria Durso from New York spoke on the fire of the Holy Spirit and how we are refined, and have power. This as something I needed to be reminded of as well. I will be listening to this again on CD.

Maria Durso translated by John Vereckken.
The speaker who most impacted me however was Dino Rizzo, a leader of a big church in the USA called ‘The Healing Place’. The reason I was impacted because he has a very similar heart to me, but again he is ahead of me in his journey and especially in his ministry.

Dino Rizzo speaking about 'Servolution' translated by Robert Barringer, the leader of Camino de Vida.

He really understands the heart of God, the heart to serve the one, in love. His church is one of serving, which then opens the doors to the church.
One of their ventures is called ‘Servolution’ which is open to any church in the world and includes serving the people of your area, wherever this may be. I plan to do this event in our church to help aid the mission focus of the church. I plan to lead the church in 2 events and am asking every cell leader to do 1 event in this week. This means as a church we are serving in over 20 events.

Sami and Mayra two of the members of Vision Vida
The very exciting thing is that the teenagers have taken this servant attitude on, and are now starting to do events every Saturday, starting by giving out water to those in their cars, and one of the cell groups that I spoke to on Friday are doing an event this week. They either misunderstood me because of my Spanish or because they didn’t understand me. Anyway they are going to a very poor area of Lima to fix the house of a single mum, who has many problems and is the neighbour of one of the members of the cell group.
I’m so encouraged. Our church is starting to become focused outside its 4 walls.

Update (not a very exciting title I know)

January is generally a month of planning here in the Peruvian churches hence the lack of postings. Planning is not that interesting to write about. After carefully consideration we felt that we were being led to put our ministry under the authority of our local church ‘Vision Vida’.
This has meant we have had a slight change of direction. We are still working with Alfredo and in Pucallpa, which is now under the mission ministry of our church and labelled as support of different ministries.

Our main focus now is increasing the amount of mission being done in the church. We are doing this in several ways; firstly, we are starting a new work in a shanty town called Pacifico de Villa in an area called Chorillos.

Some of the mums and children that we hope to work with.

This is the area where we did the kids event in December. Secondly we are visiting the cell groups of our church, and encouraging them to do more mission related things, as well as supporting them. A view of Pacifico de Villa.

Also we are planning to support those doing mission, in whatever form and help those who have ideas on what they want to do in mission but don’t have the next steps.
We are very excited about all this. More to follow in the next few days and weeks.

Baby Shower (without photos)

Last Monday, our friends, and the leaders of our church, Eduardo and Cecillia threw a wonderful babyshower for us, at their house. We unfortunately forgot to take our camera, so as soon as we get the photos we'll put them on the blog for you.

This was our (yes our, in Peru babyshowers are for both parents) first babyshower as Daniel came 2 months early, so we never had one for him. It was amazing as the main church leaders were all there, many who we hardly knew, and all who brought us gifts. We now have enough nappies to sink the Titanic, and enough wipes to wash it!!

We had an amazing time, and played some typically silly party games and enjoyed spending time wih the guys.

We've so found the right church to be part of.

Anniversary craziness

Saturday night we had a night out - and left Daniel behind for only the second time since we've been in Peru. We went to Vision Vida's church 4th Anniversary. This is the church we're currently attending on a Sunday and we were invited as special guests (yes, a bit of a joke, we know!)

So in true Peruvian style, the anniversary consisted of speeches and introductions of the special guests (we got to stand and wave and Mark was humilated again as Edwardo the pastor shared Mark's culinary skills with everyone. In fairness, I did tell Mark he needed to redo the apple crumble after he accidently poured rice instead of sugar into the mix which didn't cook and added a very crunchy feel to the whole pudding. Mark would like you to know that it was dark - but I want to know why he was cooking in the dark in the first place?!)

Edwardo, the pastor of Vision Vida Church

Anyway, back to the anniversary. Then one of the special guests (appropriately for a pastor named Domingo (Sunday)) gave a short (!) 40 minute sermon on integrity and setting an example for Christ in society. Next, during our BBQ dinner and garlic bread we got to watch a random video of people in the church throughout the year which also lasted about 40 minutes. The highlight had to be the videoman getting a group of girls in a tent to look up from their coffees to wave to the camera for the church anniversary video. Seeing members of the church in stupid 2008 glasses and doing the limbo came a close second.

Next the lights went down, the coloured lights went on and the band got up and we had disco style worship! The most surreal moment (after the rap?!) was definitely emerging from the bathroom to find everyone with sausage balloons wearing stupid hats! There is definitely not any sign of religious spirit in this church! The worship band in full swing with anniversary hats. Edwardo and his wife Cecelia, the pastors of the church are the ones in top hats!